The Minotaur’s Tale

Review

Following on from The Spiral Cage, this is a fictional novella concerning a deformed man, known as Banshee, who is saved from the misery of sleeping rough by kindly people who have suffered their own fair share of hardship. A black lesbian couple, Etty and Jenny, take him in and, ultimately, he goes on to find love and happiness with a doctor who is stigmatised by a large port wine birthmark that covers half her body. The story is shot through with incidents of cruelty and violence towards the “ugly” and the unfortunate. The main narrative is counterpointed with an alternative account of the life and death of the Minotaur, written as an art project at school by Etty when younger.

The work raises important issues in our visually obsessed culture. Questions of how deformity and disabilities are viewed, especially with regards to love and sex.

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